man, he looks ugly

The next day, the news that made Christine heartbroken spread throughout the dance company.

The girls of the ballet troupe whispered after the training, spreading rumors to the whole dance troupe excitedly and contemptuously.

Christine was absent from rehearsal all day, and Mrs. Geary told me she cried all night, her eyes swelled into peaches, and she ran to the prayer room early in the morning and shut herself in.

I know that the girls in the dance troupe are talking about Christine, but I don't know what they are talking about. I don't get close to these girls on weekdays, and it's even more so today. As soon as I showed signs of getting close to them, they all flirted with each other. Staring up at me as if I was wearing a grotesque dance dress and trying to scare people.

In order to know what happened, I had no choice but to ask Anais, the only one who didn't reject me. In front of other people, Anai didn't dare to tell me openly, and asked me to wait until after the evening performance.

Throughout the day, Christine didn't show up, and I walked around alone, chewing tasteless bread and watching the other girls at the table laughing and playing.

When I went to find Christine with milk and bread, the wooden door of the prayer room was locked tightly, and I could only look through the crack of the door.

She was sitting in front of the French window of the prayer room, with a gray woolen shawl over her shoulders, her feet together, huddled in a corner, staring dreamily at the window glass, which was just a stained-glass image of an angel with a poor pattern.

Indeed, as Mrs. Geary said, in just one night, she became much emaciated, as if she had lost the pearl of the soul of the sea, and even if the outside light was bright, she could not fill the rough and uneven gaps.

The door of the prayer room was closed, and no one was allowed to enter even after knocking on the door.

Tonight's performance is Carlotta's first appearance at the Garnier Theater, and all the tickets are sold out. Before that, the two managers of the theater bought a lot of newspaper space to make a big deal for the Italian female singer. The momentum, and Carlotta's performance also paid off the manager quite well. In the five-act play of "Knights Around the Round Table", her singing with a slightly exotic accent won the audience applause.

But my mind had already flown to the back of the stage. As soon as the performance ended, I dragged Anais to a corner.

She told me a deliberately distorted and distorted version.

Yesterday, when Carlotta practiced her high notes, Christine went to Carlotta's dressing room in her best attire and boldly introduced herself. Those who spread the rumors also had to admit that Christine's beauty was far superior to Carlota's.

Christine plucked up the courage to sing to Carlotta excerpts from "The Funeral Song of the Marionette Dolls", but Carlota interrupted her before she could finish half the act.

Carlota's original words are roughly like this, although Christine has a good appearance bestowed by God, but to be honest, her singing is disorganized, her breath is disordered, and her singing is vulgar in the eyes of professionals, even if she is delusional Learning to sing has already passed the appropriate age.

It's better to obediently learn the kind of ballet that only requires time and sweat, and play some small roles that don't need to consider acting skills, rather than delusional to become a leading role.

This series of sharp and mean criticisms made Christine flushed and teary, almost fainted by Carlotta's words.

At this moment, Janss and Nancy walked out from behind the screen in Carlotta's dressing room, these two girls who were good at spreading gossip and even dared to contradict Mrs. Giri.

Perhaps, they were simply arranged to wait there deliberately, waiting for Christine to bump into them stupidly.

"So, this is all a good show arranged by Carlota, just to humiliate Christine?"

"To be honest, which female lead would like a choir member who outshines her on stage?" Anais shrugged.

"So, Janss and Nancy are the ones who spread the rumors in the theater today?" I swallowed hard to make my voice calm.

"Who else but them? Carlotta doesn't bother to deal with members of the dance troupe."

Very good, very good, these two girls again, last time they had no scruples to mock Christine and me at the end of the farewell party, this time, they viciously described the humiliation Christine suffered hype...

Very good, pretty good!

I gritted my teeth and pushed open the door of the dressing room.

The crowd who dispersed from the backstage walked slowly to the corridor between the dressing room and the dressing room. This corridor is quite old. The kerosene lamp lampshade on the wall has been blackened by smoke, and the light has been dimming year by year. The cool wind blows in from the gaps in the lampshade, blowing the fire light up and down. Infected by this gloomy feeling, the conversations of the crowd gradually fell down.

Embalm.

I clearly felt my lips move and spit out a word.

A shrill scream erupted from the crowd, like the harshest curse that a witch possessed by a demon in the middle ages could utter under the flames.

A girl was waving her arms desperately. She screamed at everyone, curled up desperately, and squeezed her head desperately, as if trying to expel some kind of vicious evil spirit.

The other girl stomped her feet in fear, with tears streaming down her face, calling a certain man's name, crying heartbreakingly, and the bun on her head was messed up by herself.

Not long after, the two girls were writhing on the ground in pain, their nails scraping blood on their faces.

They seem to have encountered the most painful experience they can encounter in their lives, but they cannot escape the curse.

Those horrific fragments flooded into my mind crazily, those fragments that were the most unbearable in memory and should be buried in the dark abyss, were repeatedly evoked and played repeatedly, crazily stimulating people's emotions with the limit that human thinking can achieve. Nerves, fear, mania, hysteria.

My head burst into severe pain like a needle prick.

The horror scene that made everyone shudder lasted only 1 minute.

The corridor was blown up, and the girls screamed and retreated to both ends of the corridor. I was pushed to the ground, and I was stepped on my ankles by two pairs of panicked feet.

This is the curse one must endure to use 'Embalm': recalling the most painful memories in one's mind and being there, including oneself.

My whole body seemed to be torn apart by the sharp claws of wild beasts, and I, who had suffered double curses, lay on the floor of the empty corridor like a dead body, staring straight at the stone wall above my head.

In addition, beside him are two young bodies who have just escaped from the curse.

I thought, maybe God, the old man, had already crucified my soul and thrown it into the endless hell.

A hollow skull face appeared directly above the face, and I vaguely understood a sentence, the way of heaven is where the retribution is not good, look, the devil has come to escort me to hell!

I close my eyes.

When I woke up, I found myself in someone's arms, watched nervously by a pair of pale gold eyes.

"Eric?" I muttered, staring into those familiar eyes.

"It's all my fault. I shouldn't have let you out of my sight. You are too fragile. I should protect you at every step." Eric's voice trembled violently like the accent of a cello. too excited.

"Shh, it's nothing to do with you, it's my sin." I gasped and blocked Eric's lips with my fingers.

Perhaps, the greatest danger of 'Embalm' is that I never seriously thought about it.It can easily break through people's most guarded walls, arouse their greatest fears, and ignite emotional flames.

I never even thought that when the malice in a person's heart breaks free from the shackles of reason, out of control like a devil who escapes from a sealed gold bottle, he slaughters crazily and brutally, sprinkles the fire of revenge on the dry grassland, and burns the sky into a eclipse .

"What happened? Are those two girls crazy?" Eric frowned, his golden eyes full of confusion.

The recovery of sanity made me fall into irreparable self-torture. If Eric knew, if he knew the truth, he would definitely hate my existence.

Who would have thought that under this ignorant appearance, there is actually a black heart that is more terrifying than a voodoo puppet...

When I was swallowed by the gloom that covered the sky and the sun, Eric went crazy, and rubbed his palms anxiously on my face, trying to neutralize the cold temperature.

"What's the matter with you, Meg? Meg?"

"Eric, I want to kill myself." I hugged him hard, hoping that I would become a snowman in the spring, and just fall apart, turn into dust, and be clean.

"Don't say that, I would rather sacrifice my soul to the devil than allow you to be harmed at all." Eric indulged my fragility, and his strong arms tightly imprisoned the almost escaped soul.

"God will curse me."

This childish-sounding statement made Eric chuckle, and he probably interpreted it as the fear in the heart of an immature child when he told his first lie.

"My Angel, if there is really a so-called curse in this world, my birth must be the greatest curse. I swore to protect you. If there is a curse, then it will fall on me. As the old saying goes, there is no debt to worry about! Drink some wine, my dear, you look worse than bad marble."

Eric poured me a glass of wine with one hand, as if he knew that at this moment, only in his arms could I have a moment of salvation.

"Besides, little Meg, I probably know your troubles. It is really unpleasant for your little sister to be humiliated in this way. I promise you that I will teach her all my skills without reservation." The intimate voice that was there before, even the tone that could not be called pampering, was accepted with a smile.

"You promised to teach Christine to sing!" Inspired by this exciting news, I temporarily forgot about the gloom and shook his arm.

"Haven't you realized it yet? My Angel, if you made this request, how could I refuse it?" Eric under the mask curled the corners of his lips so beautifully that it made people cry.

The author has something to say: From this chapter on, the original plot has been introduced. For those who have read the original book or movie, do you feel familiar with it? ~(≧▽≦)/~